The present invention relates to shoe soles and more particularly to novel gripping traction arrays on athletic shoe soles for use on natural and synthetic turf-type playing surfaces.
The advent of synthetic playing surfaces for soccer, football and other sports previously played solely on natural turf has brought about a concomitant increase in the injury to athletes, especially knee and ankle injuries. Knee and ankle injuries suffered on synthetic surfaces have been attributed primarily to the inadequate tractive and releasing capability of shoe soles employed by athletes. Attempts to adapt traction soles previously used on natural playing surfaces for use on synthetic playing surfaces have met with some success, but in general have been unsatisfactory as the number of injuries on synthetic surfaces attributable at least in part to inadequately designed traction soles has continued to grow with increased usage of synthetic playing surfaces. An example of this is U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,649 the teachings of which have been incorporated by reference.
Consequently, it is a broad object of the present invention to provide an improved traction-type athletic shoe sole for use on synthetic playing surfaces of the type intended to simulate natural turf surfaces and at the same time to provide an improved traction-type athletic shoe sole that is adaptable for use on natural playing surfaces. Another broad object of the present invention is to provide a traction-type athletic shoe sole that will substantially reduce the athlete injury rate, especially on synthetic playing surfaces, that has previously been attributed to inferior traction soles. Additional objects of the present invention are to provide a traction-type shoe sole for athletic shoes that will allow relatively free rotation of the shoe on a playing surface about an upright axis running through the ball of an athlete's foot (balance point) while providing good traction on the surface for the athlete, thereby allowing torsional movement of the shoe on the playing surface while maintaining sufficient traction to prevent an athlete from slipping or falling; to provide a traction-type shoe sole that will improve the turning and cutting ability of an athlete when running on a synthetic playing surface, that is, to provide a traction-type shoe sole that will maintain traction on the playing surface while allowing the athlete to quickly change his direction of movement and at the same time provide the athlete with necessary rotational freedom relative to the playing surface, thereby reducing the possibility of injury to the ankle or knee; to provide a traction-type shoe sole that will maintain a traction sufficient contact with the playing surface even though the athlete's foot may be turned at an angle sidewardly relative to the plane of the playing surface; and, to provide a traction-type shoe sole having traction arrays that are safer and more efficient for the wearer of the athletic shoe bearing said shoe sole as well as being unlikely to cause severe injury to those others on the playing field that might have the misfortune of coming into physical contact with the traction arrays.